Recruitment Process Outsourcing

The Client – Who are IDE Group?

IDE Group are a leading supplier of IT Managed Services based in Surrey.

They provide;

• Professional, flexible and reliable IT Support
• Fully Managed IT Services
• Bespoke IT Project Delivery; and
• Expert, strategic IT advice
• Hosted and Cloud solutions

Working with small, medium and large businesses throughout the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, their solutions help clients to improve performance and productivity while reducing costs, therefore, increasing overall profitability.

IDE Group support staff can work alongside any in-house IT resource, or you can outsource your full IT management to their fully accredited, reliable, expert teams.

What Services did they Need?

Initially, Vertex started to work with Selection Services as they were known then, in July 2001, as they had a requirement to find experienced staff to work on their internal Help Desks, with a minimum of 2 years Helpdesk experience within a similar environment. Preference was given to local resources, thus reducing cost.

Our Senior Account Manager met the team at their offices, to understand their requirements, environment and culture.

This was our chance to shine! We immediately hit our extensive candidate database and began speaking to local, experienced candidates that we had readily available and reference checked. Following this; we organised a day of interviews at our office where we sat them down individually and assessed their experience along with their suitability for the role, the environment and company fit.

We selected a number of candidates that passed our scrutiny and presented the CVs to the client, arranged the interviews and walked them to the office which was just a few minutes from ours; this ensured they were suitably dressed and arrived on time as the location was not easy to find unless you had been there before.

The Outcome and Evolution of the Relationship

We impressed Selection Services with our service and speed of delivery, but more importantly, with the quality and relevance of the candidates. This resulted in multiple job offers and therefore the requirements were quickly filled.

Our efficiencies in the handling of the requirements led to the Vertex name rapidly spreading throughout the selection hierarchy, leading to us developing a trusted relationship with over 30 Hiring Managers. We are now the sole supplier to the business (known now as IDE Group) when it comes to IT professionals on both permanent and contract positions.

We now have the pleasure of supplying Security Cleared professionals, to work on major Government hardware upgrade projects across the UK and for global financial institutions. We were instrumental in the delivery of IT services, which in turn led to the success of major sporting events such as the Olympic Games, due to the supply and organisation of the resources required to underpin such events.

What were the Issues and how did we Overcome them?

Initially, there were some very clear objectives; streamline the recruitment process, agree on the level of services and simplify the approval and billing strategy.

Firstly, both parties agreed to have one point of contact for all resource requirements and the subsequent process moving forward. This was a major change, as previously each recruiting manager was responsible for their own resourcing. The issues with this model are;

a) costs are higher

b) applications can be duplicated

c) there may be a disparity between contractors’ terms

Following this change, we were able to standardise the contracts via a Master Vendor Agreement (MVA) and therefore reduce the amount of paperwork for each engagement. We were also able to put in place a rate card for each position, therefore budgets were upheld and there was no disparity between contractor rates and charges. With all applications being managed via one single point of contact there were no duplications.

Secondly, with agreed SLA’s, both IDE Group and Vertex expectations were managed and adhered to. This reduced all levels of confusion or frustration.

Lastly, Vertex implemented and trained all contractors and hiring managers on the use of our online timesheet approval system. This made it simple to validate the workers time and therefore reconciliation at month-end was far less painful. All invoices with accompanying timesheets were sent to a central email address where these were easily managed.

We appointed an on-site Account Manager during this process and they now hold daily and weekly meetings with IDE Group to ensure all open roles (Permanent and Contract) are being supported correctly. The delivery team on-site at Vertex offices liaise with the account manager to ensure the roles are supported and the correct candidates sent.

All this is managed by a state-of-the-art database and software package and more recently a “self-bill” invoicing process. All this has led to a significant reduction in contractor and hiring costs along with a simplified process with full visibility to IDE Group and all members of the Vertex Team.

Recent Activity

Over the last 2 years, we have been heavily involved in two very large Windows 10 rollout projects for two of IDE Groups largest clients: One project lasted for 12 months in which we sourced a variety of teams across the UK. Each team consisted of up to 10 engineers performing a variety of roles; from Team Leadership, deployment and floor walking. 2 teams were based in London with others covering; Scotland, Midlands, North, South East and South West. The second project is still running; again, supplying teams across the UK for Windows 10, SC Cleared implementation. As this is a government site, all resources needed to be SC Cleared or we worked to obtain this, managing the process on behalf of IDE Group. The teams consisted of up to 20 engineers, covering: deployment, floor walking and team leadership. These teams are located in six separate geographical areas throughout the project. Providing day, evening and weekend work. All these engineers are coming to the end of this project and so are available to take on new contracts through ourselves and all come with solid references to endorse their skills.

Vertex IT Solutions USP’s

We have many unique selling points, but these are the ones we build our relationships from;

• Trust
• Face to Face Interviews – at either our local office or one of our satellite facilities or Skype calls
• IT Industry Experts – we know the industry we work in; therefore, we are able to “dig a little deeper” with our screening techniques.
• CV and Candidate Summary – we give an unbiased overview of the candidate’s skills and personality – showing you what the CV doesn’t show
• Referencing – all of our candidates are reference checked, both from employers and peers – this gives you the real picture of what they are like at work
• Loyalty discounts – the more you give us, the more we give back – we like to reward loyalty
• 100-day replacement – most agencies offer a rebate during the first 8-12 weeks – we are so confident we will find you the right person the first time, we cover 100 days, that’s 14.3 weeks